Ex-deputy sentenced in rape of child

MARION, Ohio - In the courtroom he once guarded as a deputy sheriff, Randy Spencer stood yesterday and told a judge, defiantly and confidently, that he was sending an innocent man to prison.

Holly Zachariah, The Columbus Dispatch

MARION, Ohio — In the courtroom he once guarded as a deputy sheriff, Randy Spencer stood yesterday and told a judge, defiantly and confidently, that he was sending an innocent man to prison.

Marion County Common Pleas Judge Jim Slagle was unmoved, however, and sentenced Spencer to 15 years to life in prison on four counts of rape of a young girl.

Prosecutors, pointing to Spencer’s position of trust as the child’s babysitter and his standing in the community as a deputy sheriff when the rapes occurred, had asked for a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

The girl, authorities say, was 5 when Spencer raped her at least six times during a 10-month period, the last time being in April. The child testified against Spencer in court during his eight-day trial.

A jury convicted him last week.

Spencer, 28, was a Marion County deputy sheriff and, after being laid off in 2011, most recently worked as a corrections officer at the Delaware County jail.

He was placed on leave in April after the allegations surfaced and was fired on Sept. 20, the day after his conviction, said Tracy Whited, spokeswoman for the Delaware County sheriff’s office.

Spencer’s girlfriend ran a babysitting service and, at times when she wasn’t available, the children were left in Spencer’s care.

The girl went to her mother this year and told her what had happened.

In court, Slagle praised the child’s mother and said she did everything right by immediately getting the child help, contacting authorities and keeping her own emotions out of it to avoid influencing the child in her testimony in court.

Victim’s advocate Betsy Abbott read a statement written by the girl’s mother. In it, the mom said her 5-year-old had told her she would always tell the truth because she never wanted this to happen to any other little girls.

“My child was worried about protecting other little girls,” the mom wrote. “I should never have had to have this conversation with my 5-year-old daughter. How am I supposed to ever teach her to trust again?”

Spencer’s attorneys say they will appeal the sentence.

In an interview after the hearing, Spencer said he had watched the child for more than three years. He said he was accused because the girl is caught up in domestic trouble between her own parents.

“I am an innocent man going to prison,” he said.

Prosecutor Angie Canepa, who handled the case on behalf of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office because of Spencer’s law-enforcement position, said his lack of responsibility to accept what he has done only continues to hurt the girl.

“He could make it a lot easier on the child if he would acknowledge what he’s done,” she said. “ Then, maybe the healing could begin.”